Super Bowl Sunday.

For me, usually just a day that means that baseball is almost here, but this year I have a team to root for. GO Patriots!!

STILL... more importantly... 60 days until opening day for the Red Sox!!!!

We have had a lot of vog here in Hawaii since I have returned from Colorado. The one bright side of vog is beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Last Friday when I was driving home, I could not keep my eyes off of the sky. I was mesmerized and so grateful to have witnessed such beauty. I knew it would be too late to capture the sun setting by the beach, so I pulled off and took these photos of the sky as the sun was beginning to set.

I mentioned in my snowshoeing post that I took a bunch of photos outside while waiting for my uncle to arrive.

I took these around the corner and towards the back of the store...

This sign hangs out on the deck of the store. I don't think ice cream is served this time of year.

While my uncle was loading his bike into the car, I took a bunch of photos trying to capture the ice melting. Here are a few of my favorites.

...and here is a close up of that last drip

Almost every day while I was in Steamboat, the weather was sunny with beautiful blue skies. There even were a few warm days (or at least warm for wintertime in the mountains - 40's rather than in the teens and below). Of course, the one day my aunt & I decided to walk around downtown, the skies were gray. Even so, I think these photos capture winter and the Christmas spirit in downtown Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Looking towards the ski area...

I took this one quickly while in the middle of the road, crossing the street...

Howelsen Hill behind a group of shops...

Close up of Howelsen Hill, a famous spot for ski jumping...

Looking towards Sleeping Giant (west end of town)...

She hid from me during most of my stay with my aunt & uncle. She finally came out to visit me the last morning in I was in Steamboat. Isn't she sweet??

Her face got a little distorted as she came towards me in this photo...

Continuing with my Steamboat trip....

Since there was little snow to be found in town on Friday, we went in search of winter to go snowshoeing, something else I have not done in a really long time.

My uncle got a head start, riding his bike.

We met him in Clark at the Clark Store. While we were waiting, I took a bunch of photos that I will share in another post. After my uncle arrived and loaded his bike in the car, we headed on, climbing altitude a bit towards Hahns Peak to find more snow and a place to go snowshoeing.

First, we went to Steamboat Lake, but all the places to park charged a daily $7 fee park pass. We decided to try another area nearby instead. Our fun began though before leaving the Steamboat Lake area when we got stuck in a ditch. Fortunately, I was with experienced snow people and we eventually were able to get the car out of the ditch (of course with no help by me, who sat in the car wondering if we would be there all night freezing in the cold car). Here's the evidence of the ditch we were stuck in.

After a short drive, we arrived at the Pearl Lake parking area. There we found the same sign, charging a $7 daily park pass fee. We parked outside the little parking lot, hoping that way, we would not have to pay that fee since we were only going to be there for a few hours at most.

I have only snowshoed a couple of times before. It is a lot like hiking. This time I was in much better shape and was excited for the outdoor adventure. My uncle & I snowshoed while my aunt went on cross country skis.

It was a little chilly when we first got our gear on, but with the activity level, it warmed right up as long as we were in the sun. I took my DSLR camera with me, which meant I could not fall. That along with trying to figure out how to pee without getting any on my snowshoes in the snow were my two big challenges. I took lots of photos along the way (none of me peeing of course!).

My aunt...

My uncle...

My snowshoes...

My tracks...

The other night after our wagon ride and dinner, we went outside to fly two sky lanterns.

They are like miniature hot air balloons. It was pretty dark outside, so my photos are not the greatest.

Tonight is my last night in Steamboat. We will drive down to Denver tomorrow, stay overnight, and then my aunt and uncle are dumping me at the airport for my flight home. I have had a great time this week. I have done a lot of things I have not done for a very long time. This will be a vacation I will not forget.

Buon Anno! ~ Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! ~ Happy New Year everyone!

Wishing you all the best in 2012!!

Late Tuesday afternoon, we went out to Carpenter Ranch for a wagon ride and dinner. The original plan was to go on a sleigh ride but there was not enough snow on the ground for a sleigh ride. It was pretty chilly outside when we arrived. Everyone bundled up, putting on extra layers, ski pants, jackets, hats, gloves/mittens, scarves, etc. There were about 40 people invited so we ended up going in two shifts. I was nice and warm sitting in a hay bale under a warm blanket. Beautiful horses, fun ride, nice scenery, and great company.

On Christmas morning, the temperature was...

now look at it today! It's a winter heat wave!

It's cloudy out today. Hoping that means SNOW!

I have gone skiing twice now, last Friday and yesterday. I would be on the slopes again today but the snow situation up on the mountain is pretty dismal. Snow gods, please make it snow before I leave.

The good thing about the lack of snow is that the mountain was empty both days that we skied. At times, my uncle and I had an entire run to ourselves. Yesterday, we decided to ski all the way down to the bottom and take the gondola up again a second time. The guy checking tickets remembered us!

The ski area really has done a wonderful job grooming the runs and making snow but there just have been too many days gone by now with no new snow. Although we did manage to find a few great spots to ski, many of the runs are icy and there are spots where grass, dirt, rocks, and even a tiny bit of a creek are showing through. One of the easy runs we did was like an obstacle course, negotiating between rocks and ice patches as we skied down.

I still had a fantastic time both days. I was a little worried that I would not remember how to ski when I first got on my skis last Friday, but if I ran into any problems, at least I knew the rescue St.Bernards were out in force...

It really was just like riding a bike though. After about 15 minutes, it all cam back to me. I am not a great skier but I can hold my own on blue runs and could probably do a few black diamonds if I was brave enough and the snow was better. The workouts I did prior to coming to Steamboat to get in shape for skiing made a huge difference, especially when skiing on icy patches. The only body part I neglected, which I realized was an important part of skiing was my thumbs!

My uncle and I took a lot of photos last Friday. It was colder on Monday, so I only took a few photos that day. Hopefully I will be back on the slopes again before returning to Hawaii if the 20% 30% 20% chance of snow this week happens.

Taking the gondola up...

Thunderhead (where the gondola lets everyone off)...

Taking the lift up to the top of the mountain...

Me at the top...

Skiing (sometimes the wrong way!)...

...and to everyone else, have a fabulous day!

Brrrrr ~ it's FREEZING!! This time for real. -10 on the mountain right now. Hopefully it will warm up soon. I am in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Arrived yesterday and it was snowing!! First time I have been in snow in 16 years.

My flight was short compared to the long 24+ hour treks to Italy but with a screaming kid a few rows in front of me, it sured seemed like that flight would never end. Even though I hit the jackpot, ending up with an empty seat next to me, I probably only ended up sleeping for about 2 hours.

Our plane arrived at 8:40 am. My aunt & uncle were there to pick me up. We headed to breakfast, did some shopping, and then did the long drive up to Steamboat. It was so much fun being out in the snow. Here's a little photo journey of my day.

It was dark when we arrived, so no photos of Steamboat yet.

Skiing today!! Have a great one and stay warm!

Two Moors at the top of the Torre dell' Orologio (Clock Tower) in Piazza San Marco.

I took the photo of the two Moors from the top of the Campanile (Bell Tower).

...and here are my two feet at the top of the Campanile.

Some day when I finally get back into blogging (and yes, I know, I have been a bad bad blogger these past few months), I will continue on with my trip. I have so much to share. I just need to find the time and the motivation to get back into blogging again.

Happy November everyone :)

After my last post, I wanted to add a more upbeat post. I still need to get back to my Italy trip and hope to one day soon. Meanwhile, sharing a few yummy things I enjoyed this summer while in Italy.

I am so glad September is pau!

Pau, the Hawaiian word meaning: finished, end, done, over.

The first week in September went pretty well, but then it all started. I had one of those weeks at work that was so bad, I have erased it from my memory. I should clarify though that generally work has been good and I love my students.

Getting to work in the morning has not been fun. Traffic has been horrible and one morning, I was even rear-ended on the freeway on my way to work. Fortunately the woman that hit me was very nice and no major damage was done. I was more stunned and a little freaked out for the next few days every time a car got to close to me.

My right shoulder (my other shoulder) continues to bother me and I am now wearing a brace at night for my elbow, which seems to be related to my shoulder issue. It has been a not so fun month of sleep at night with this new contraptions strapped to my arm. Hopefully it won't be a long term solution.

The work issue, the getting rear-ended, and my shoulder/elbow issue alone were not too bad to deal with but then the major meltdown of the Red Sox happened. My team. The team I passionately follow all year long. The team I have loved as long as I can remember, broke my heart again.

We were in first place. We were supposed to win the division. Then we started losing, and losing, and losing. We dropped out of first to the Yankees. Well, we still had the wild card. We would beat those Yankees in the playoffs. All we had to do was to beat the worst team in the league to stay ahead but instead we kept on losing game after game. We did win a few games here and there but we could not even win two games in a row. It was bad. Still, we were alive on the last day of the season. All we had to do was to beat the worst team in the league to stay alive for one more day (AND I am not even going to go talk about how the Yankees, who were ahead 7-0, blew their lead in the 8th, something they have not done since 1953, and took away the possibility of keeping us alive for one more day if we did lose). We were winning that last game. We still had hope. There were two outs, two strikes. All we needed was one more strike, one more out to stave off elimination so we could play that game number 163 and then... we lost. Red Sox baseball was pau.

AND if that was not bad enough… the following day, all these stories started coming out about things happening in the clubhouse. Stories that made fans question their faith and belief in the team they loved.

…. and then the unthinkable happened. Our manager, Terry Francona, also known as Tito, was gone. I did not even care anymore that we lost that last game. Losing Tito was much more devastating. I still have not been able to get through the entire video of his press conference that took place after it was announced that he was not coming back. I personally do not believe it was his decision to leave, at least without the strong influence from the owners and the actions of some of the players.

I wish you all the best Tito. Thank you for the two World Series wins and for all of the years you managed the Red Sox. I will miss you.

The ironic thing is that something exciting did happen that last week in September. It just was such a bad week that I really did not care.

As I mentioned earlier in the year, this was my first year playing fantasy baseball. I managed two teams. One of my teams was in an anonymous league of 12 teams, meaning I did not know any of the other managers in this league. My other team was in a league of 20 teams. This was a much harder league because of the number of teams playing, which meant there were less players available to pick up. I knew most of the other team managers in this league through twitter. Everyone in this league was a Red Sox fan.

I worked really hard playing fantasy baseball. I spent many hours each week reading up on players, looking at stats, and watching baseball games (not just Red Sox games). I sweated out many a Sunday Night Baseball game hoping to win just one more category that week to move my team up in the standings. I was pretty obsessed, almost as obsessed as I was with the Red Sox. It wasn’t work though. It was fun. I learned a lot and I even made it into the playoffs with both of my teams!

So what happened to my teams?.

The team that I nicknamed “my good team” ended up in fourth place at the end of the season (although this team did enjoy a second place spot for quite a few weeks this summer before taking a little dive during the last few weeks). I lost in the quarterfinals and ended up in fifth place overall after the playoffs were done. I was still very proud of my accomplishments with this team.

The team I nicknamed “my bad team” started out in 19th place. This was the team that was so bad that I set a goal at the beginning of the year to just not come in last place. I moved back and forth between 17th and 19th for the first couple of months of the year. I thought for sure there was no way I had any hope of getting into the playoffs with this team but I did not give up. Somehow, I started winning, and then kept on winning. I won the last 9 weeks in a row. The top eight teams made it into the playoffs. I ended up sneaking into 7th place that final week. AND THEN…. I kicked butt in the playoffs. I won quarterfinals, the semifinals, and then I WON the finals. I ended up in first place and I am proud to say I did it without having one Yankee player on my team the entire year.

Once the last game was played that last day of the year, and it was determined that my team came in first place, this popped up on the league's playoff page. Here I am in first place!

So why wasn't I ecstatic that I won the championship? Especially since the team that won was the team that was so bad when the year began. Well, the day the final match ended, the day I found out that I won (and I kicked butt winning 9-1), was the day the Red Sox lost their final game, the day the Red Sox were eliminated from the playoffs. Ironic huh? I was so heartbroken that the Red Sox lost that I didn't even care. I would have been happier if my fantasy team came in last place and the Red Sox made the playoffs, but the Red Sox did not and my fantasy team won.

September is thankfully now pau. It has been nice having a week off of work to chill out (fall break, yes already). My Red Sox broken heart is slowly starting to heal a little although it is going to take a long time to get over the loss of Tito. Watching the Yankees lose the other night helped some though. Not gloating here. They at least made it into the playoffs but seeing them lose as a Red Sox fan, sure did put a big smile on my face.

I am starting to feel a little more excited now about my fantasy baseball team winning the championship. People have asked me what I got for winning. I didn't play in a money league but I did get this trophy on my manager page along with a rating of 82% (which falls in the all star range).

Here's my trophy... Pretty cool, huh?

Sorry for being so absent lately in the blogging world. There is still a few more weeks of baseball left so I probably won't be around much until November. Even though my team did not make it in, I am not ready for baseball to end.

Happy October everyone!! It's got to be better than September was.